Hi Cathy I'm in SE Mi too and my name is Cathy with a "C" LOL I don't usually post here because I don't know tons about Bfs. I just read the posts because I can only identify about 15 bfs. I'm always on the bluebird site. I have many butterfly plants and am always looking for more. I can tell you in my area the white and pink butterfly bushes get the most action for me. I was cutting the grass one day and as I came around my white bf bush (it's huge) at least 200 butterflies of different kinds took to the air all at once. My daughter was in the yard playing with friends and exclaimed "Oh Mama that was just beautiful!!!" I felt like I was in some sort of dream world. I do know butterfly weed is supposed to be a nectar plant. I've never heard of it being a host plant but I'm surely no expert. I'm sure others here will give you an answer on that. If you decide to get rid of your bf weed I would gladly take it or trade you for some say spicebush, joe-pye, bf bush or whatever I have that you would like. Let me know Cathy

Cathy, I've heard many people mention that butterfly weed (asclepias tuberosa) is a good nectar plant, but that the Monarchs don't use it much as a host plant. They seem to prefer the other species like A. syriaca, A. incarnata, A. curassavica, A. viridis, and lots of other species. I don't know what species are native to your state, but I would go with that. The flowers on the curassavica seem to attract as much nectaring for me as anything in the garden does anyway. Maybe your tuberosa has a virus or something - it's not unheard of.

The reason I decided not to grow turtlehead was because I read that it doesn't do well in the south. I think there are other genus of turtlehead that do, but the glabra was one that I found thru research that likes the north better than the south. From the images I've seen of it, both lyonii and glabra are beautiful plants, so I don't blame you for wanting to keep some in the garden.

My coneflowers (echinacea purpureum) reseeds, but doesn't become a pest. It is also a host for the silvery checkerspots if you get them up there. Linda gets them on her coneflowers, but they seem to like my sunflowers best.

Susan

B. Checkerspots don't hang out where I live, but I've been growing C. glabra and lyonii for a few years in hopes that they'll show up. The glabra is not having a good year, while the lyonii 'Hot Lips' is more vigorous.

In my garden in Northern Virginia, butterfly weed is the most used milkweed as a host plant. Syriaca would be second. I've not yet seen any monarch cats on incarnata here and have had one on whorled (verticillata). Not sure about poke milkweed (exaltata) because just as it was growing a rabbit decided it was one of its favorite foods and has been enjoying it since early spring.

Cathy, LOL, can this forum stand two of us? ;-) I'm in PA though. I wouldn't say that I know tons about butterflies either. I just got on here last year when I wasn't sure how to go about raising Monarchs. Everyone was so helpful. Ha, it's funny that you said you're always on the bluebird site. I'm on a birding site too, only I haven't had too much time to be on either forum lately. The Monarchs and garden really keep me busy.

Wow, 200 butterflies?! That sure is a lot! Yes, Butterfly Weed is a nectar plants for butterflies, and it's also a host plant for Monarch caterpillars. Last year I had more cats on it than I do this year for some reason. The butterflies like my purple butterfly bushes. My Pink Delight isn't even blooming yet. I don't have white so don't know how that would do here.

Sure, I would be interested in trading sometime soon. I'll email you when I get a chance to sit down and think. lol Thanks.

Susan, I had a lot of luck with the butterfly weed last year but this year not many eggs are laid on it, which is maybe good because a lot of them that I got outside I got on there, but of course it might just be a coincidence, not sure. Honestly, I'm not sure what milkweeds are native to PA except for A. syriaca.

Yes, from what I've seen so far, the turtlehead is going to look beautiful in the garden. I actually have it bordering (one whole plant...oooh! :)) my swamp milkweed patch. I plan on planting more there eventually but not this year.

Like your coneflowers, mine haven't become a pest either. I can deal with pulling out a few dozen plants or even 50 or 100 that come up and I don't want them, but I'm 99% sure that I'm going to have a constant battle with the A. hyssop. Oh, I'm not sure if I get silvery checkerspots up here or not; I'd have to look it up.

zebz, That's good to hear that your C. lyonii is doing well. I hope that your C. glabra does better. Baltimore Checkerspots don't hang out where I live either, but I planted the turtlehead hoping that they'll show up someday just like you planted them in the hopes of getting them.

I have A. incarnata, A. tuberosa, and A. curassavica. The latter is the best one at getting Monarch eggs, and A. incarnata also got a lot this year just like last year. This year was the first year that I've had A. curassavica and I will be planting it again next year both outside in the flower bed that I have it in now and also in pots.

I don't know if it was a rabbit or a groundhog that chewed off a bunch of mallow plants that I had planted. I looked one day and they were totally gone and they never did sprout out, so they're totally wiped out. Between the drought and the animals, it's a wonder anything made it. I had to do replacements of some things next year. Oh, we also have deer visit. Gardening certainly is a challenge.

Cathy

Cat I don't know how I got that confused! I must have looked at my own zone. LOL How thick is that? Anyway now that you mention it I know I've seen you on the bird site too. I also do a lot of native woodland gardening so am checking those forums out as well. The rabbits and deer are thick here too and we didn't have any rain for two months so everything looks kind of bad. I think no rain has had an effect on all the insects including bfs. BTW I have lots and lots of Mallow and Mallow seeds I've just been throwing out so definately contact me.
Cathy

Haha, don't worry about it. :-) I've certainly done things like that and a lot worse. Somedays I really wonder about myself. My daughter's ready to commit me because I even talk to the Monarch cats! The good thing is that I've never heard them answer me though. Ha.

Gosh, small world, huh? I was into birds a long time before I got into butterflies, almost 20 years. Your area sounds like mine as far as the animals. We live right next to a woods, but I'm sure someday it will be someone's yard. Yeah, it looks kind of pretty here too because of the drought, but we did get two days of rain last week, so we just mowed the grass for the first time in at least a month.

I agree with you about the weather affecting the butterflies. Thanks very much for the seed offer, but I'm thinking maybe I can squeeze enough plants out of ones I have in containers yet that I can replace the ones that were eaten. If I can't, I'll get in touch with you and thanks again. Actually, I will contact you about plants that I'm looking for as soon as I get my list made up. I could send you some butterfly weed, and I'm definitely looking for more spicebush. I had bought 4 off of ebay and 2 of them didn't make it. Anyway, I'll email you sometime soon about the plant trade. Just don't think that I forgot about it. It's just that the Monarchs are keeping me super busy and I don't even have time to get on here like I'd like.

Cathy

Cathy, I can't email you because there's no email thingey to click on on your member page. Could you email me at cbrouse at gmail dot com so I have your email address and then I'll get back to you about trading? Thanks.
Cathy